Ultrasound (US) imaging has provided useful information about the interior characteristics of an object or subject under examination. An ultrasound imaging scanner has included a transducer array of one or more transducer elements that produces and transmits ultrasound signals and receives ultrasound data produced in response to the ultrasound signals interacting with structure, hardware and/or software that processes the received ultrasound data generating one or more images, and a display that visually presents the one or more images.
With a hand held ultrasound imaging scanner, the transducer array, the hardware and/or software, and the display have been housed in a same housing, which can be carried around by a user in one or both hands and utilized to scan a subject or object. In another configuration, the transducer array is included in a probe that connects, via a cable or the like and/or wirelessly, to a local computing system such as a console or the like, which includes the hardware and/or software that processes the ultrasound data and generates the images. The display may be part of the console or separate from the console and connected thereto via cable, and is used to display the images.
Unfortunately, with such ultrasound imaging scanner configurations, the consumer has had to decide on performance (e.g., low end, mid-range, high end, premium, etc.) at the time of purchase of the ultrasound imaging scanner. As a consequence, if the consumer purchases a lower end ultrasound imaging scanner, the consumer will not have the option of performing higher end scans with the lower end ultrasound imaging scanner. Alternatively, if the customer purchases a higher end ultrasound imaging scanner, the consumer will have paid a higher end price, even when the ultrasound imaging scanner is used for lower end imaging.